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Award-winning author Saralyn Richard talks with me about her writing process and her novel–Murder In The One Percent–a page-turning, often humorous murder mystery.

The murder takes place where one would not expect it to, and the story abounds in red herrings!

Visit with us on YouTube Here:

Listen to the Audio Here:

Show Notes with Links:

• Saralyn (pronounced like Marilyn) introduces herself

• 

  She has also written a fun children’s book called Naughty Nana, based on the antics of her family sheepdog

• We talk about various reader reactions to her one percenter murder mystery
• She talks about how she keeps track of all the potential killers
• An actual dinner party inspired this murder mystery
• She discusses how she came to the whodunnit decision…
• And the need to write in 3rd person omniscient
• We discuss character development and inspiration for different characters and character naming conventions
• Saralyn reads a passage from Murder in the One Percent

• 

  We talk about when the character dies, and how, and the horrifying “naturally occurring” poison palytoxin, which is not yet in the book Deadly Doses: A Writer’s Guide to Poisons

• She discusses how she used “what if” thinking when writing…
• And surprises that happen along the way
• Dealing with criticism (not all constructive)
• Saralyn offers advice to aspiring murder mystery writers
• Her next book–A Palette for Love and Murder–out next year
• Shout-outs
• Saralyn’s website
• Saralyn’s preferred preserves? Apricot!

If you enjoy my podcasts, you might enjoy my books!

• Laurel’s Amazon Author page
• https://leadvillelaurel.com/writing-tips/
• https://www.facebook.com/LeadvilleLaurel/
• https://twitter.com/LeadvilleLaurel
• Intro/outro voice by Nick McHargue,
  Podcast music from Jamendo Royalty Free Music

If you enjoyed this episode and others, please subscribe to Alligator Preserves on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts, and tell your friends about it! I’d love it if you “liked” the episodes you listen to, and I’d love it even more if you’d post a quick comment!

Please support Alligator Preserves on Patreon.  You will be rewarded!

 

As race crew for my husband during the 2017 Ouray 100 Endurance Race in 2017, I bemoan my discomfort in the cold rain, then chastise myself when I witness the brutal conditions the racers endure.

Listen Here:

Show Notes with Links:

• I share my memories of the 2017 Ouray 100 Mile Endurance Run
• Link to the full text and many photos of that day
• Leadville Trail 100 run

If you enjoy my podcasts, you might enjoy my books!

• Laurel’s Amazon Author page
• https://leadvillelaurel.com/writing-tips/
• https://www.facebook.com/LeadvilleLaurel/
• https://twitter.com/LeadvilleLaurel
• Intro/outro voice by Nick McHargue,
  Podcast music from Jamendo Royalty Free Music

If you enjoyed this episode and others, please subscribe to Alligator Preserves on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts, and tell your friends about it! I’d love it if you “liked” the episodes you listen to, and I’d love it even more if you’d post a quick comment!

Please support Alligator Preserves on Patreon.  You will be rewarded!

Strack Press Presents “Warm Springs” by Michael Kilman–anthropologist and author of the Science Fiction series “The Chronicles of the Great Migration.”

Kilman lectures at the University of Colorado at Denver and works on his YouTube series “Anthropology in 10 or Less.”

In this episode, I narrate Kilman’s horror short story! Contact me at laurel@strackpress.com for information on having me narrate your short story, or for an interview.

Listen Here:

Find Michael Kilman’s books on Amazon!

If you enjoy my podcasts, you might enjoy my books!

• Laurel’s Amazon Author page
• https://leadvillelaurel.com/writing-tips/
• https://www.facebook.com/LeadvilleLaurel/
• https://twitter.com/LeadvilleLaurel
• Intro/outro voice by Nick McHargue,
  Podcast music from Jamendo Royalty Free Music

If you enjoyed this episode and others, please subscribe to Alligator Preserves on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts, and tell your friends about it! I’d love it if you “liked” the episodes you listen to, and I’d love it even more if you’d post a quick comment!

Please support Alligator Preserves on Patreon.  You will be rewarded!

In this episode I share my experience competing in the Turquoise Lake Half-Marathon several years ago after lots and lots of “tapering”!

Listen Here:

Show Notes with Links:

• I share my story “Nipples Never Lie”
• Turquoise Lake Half-Marathon
• I discuss my thoughts about nipples
• Austin Powers Man of Mystery Fembots link
• Puritan ancestors
• Going topless
• Healthline Article on Nipples

If you enjoy my podcasts, you might enjoy my books!

• Laurel’s Amazon Author page
• https://leadvillelaurel.com/writing-tips/
• https://www.facebook.com/LeadvilleLaurel/
• https://twitter.com/LeadvilleLaurel
• Intro/outro voice by Nick McHargue,
  Podcast music from Jamendo Royalty Free Music

If you enjoyed this episode and others, please subscribe to Alligator Preserves on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts, and tell your friends about it! I’d love it if you “liked” the episodes you listen to, and I’d love it even more if you’d post a quick comment!

Please support Alligator Preserves on Patreon.  You will be rewarded!

Sara Potecha, author of West Point Woman: How Character is Created and Leadership is Learned, visits with me on the Alligator Preserves podcast. Sara and I have many things in common, including our graduation from West Point in 1983 with the 4th class to include women!

We share West Point stories and discuss Sara’s self-help book on leadership with advice applicable to every workplace.

Watch on YouTube Here:

“Audio Only” on Alligator Preserves Here:

Show Notes with Links:

• Why go to West Point? We discuss our reasons and give shout-outs to cadets who made a difference in our lives.
• “Plebe poop” and Bugle Notes (a cadet’s “bible”).
• On being an enigma in our own families and overcoming ignorance about the military.
• Day 1 civilian to soldier, English teachers who made us suffer, thoughts of quitting, and wonderful mentors.
• Being actors in different roles, and issues with upper-class women.
• Fear and Airborne School.

  

• Universal principles and tools to navigate the workplace.
• Sharing stories with our children and why Sara ultimately wrote this book on character and leadership.
• Teaching integrity, and the “no excuse” response.
• Encouragement from classmates (but not all).
• Humility, leadership, and Sara’s greatest challenge: suddenly becoming a single mother when the father of her three daughters died in a tragic accident.
• Possible follow-on book with soldier-mother stories.
• Gail O’Sullivan’s book Tough as Nails: One Woman’s Journey Through West Point
• Shout-outs to Sara’s daughters: Larisa (Gaba) Barclay, Gwenyth Gaba-Thome  and Joye Gaba, and her husband, Reed Potecha; our classmate MG Ray Royalty; her West Point mentor: BG Barney Forsythe, PhD; and her book coach, Cathy Fyock.
• Sara’s website: www.WestPointWoman.com

  

• Facebook | Instagram
• National Speakers Assocation: https://www.nsaspeaker.org
• Wounded Warrior Project
• Families of the Wounded Fund
• Active Heroes

If you enjoy my podcasts, you might enjoy my books!

• Laurel’s Amazon Author page
• https://leadvillelaurel.com/writing-tips/
• https://www.facebook.com/LeadvilleLaurel/
• https://twitter.com/LeadvilleLaurel
• Intro/outro voice by Nick McHargue,
  Podcast music from Jamendo Royalty Free Music

If you enjoyed this episode and others, please subscribe to Alligator Preserves on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts, and tell your friends about it! I’d love it if you “liked” the episodes you listen to, and I’d love it even more if you’d post a quick comment!

Please support Alligator Preserves on Patreon.  You will be rewarded!

I was recently honored with an interview by Leah and Matt Rafferty, hosts of the weekly podcast “The Author Inside You.” We talk about books and inspiration and publishing and marketing and how to have a great book launch party!

Listen Here:

If you enjoy my podcasts, you might enjoy my books!

• Laurel’s Amazon Author page
• https://leadvillelaurel.com/writing-tips/
• https://www.facebook.com/LeadvilleLaurel/
• https://twitter.com/LeadvilleLaurel
• Intro/outro voice by Nick McHargue,
  Podcast music from Jamendo Royalty Free Music

If you enjoyed this episode and others, please subscribe to Alligator Preserves on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts, and tell your friends about it! I’d love it if you “liked” the episodes you listen to, and I’d love it even more if you’d post a quick comment!

Please support Alligator Preserves on Patreon.  You will be rewarded!

 

Were you aware of the short stories I’ve been writing and narrating each month for the past year? I recorded my milestone 12th story today–just in time for the vernal equinox tomorrow! (There’s a tie-in to my story).

I hope you might take a listen to “Orbs” and check out some of my other short stories on my podcast “Alligator Preserves“! You can find it on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts! And please let me know what you think! “Like” my episodes (if you do) and share them with your friends!

Listen to “Orbs” Here:

If you enjoy my podcasts, you might enjoy my books!

• Laurel’s Amazon Author page
• https://leadvillelaurel.com/writing-tips/
• https://www.facebook.com/LeadvilleLaurel/
• https://twitter.com/LeadvilleLaurel
• Intro/outro voice by Nick McHargue,
  Podcast music from Jamendo Royalty Free Music

If you enjoyed this episode and others, please subscribe to Alligator Preserves on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts, and tell your friends about it! I’d love it if you “liked” the episodes you listen to, and I’d love it even more if you’d post a quick comment!

Please support Alligator Preserves on Patreon.  You will be rewarded!

 

In this episode, author Robert Goswitz takes us to Vietnam with Private Ed Lansky in 1971.

I interview Robert Goswitz about his debut novel–The Dragon Soldier’s Good Fortune–a unique account of a young new draftee’s first tour in Vietnam . . . with a mystical twist!

 

 

Watch our Visit Here:

“Listen Only” Here:

Show Notes with Links:

• Robert introduces himself and admits the main character, Lansky,

  

  is based on his own experience in Vietnam.

• Robert explains why he wrote this book and why it took him “this long” to write it.
• Military Writers Society of America coach Kathleen Rogers, and his agent Jeanie Loiacono of the Loiacono Literary Agency.
• Writing tips for authors trying to hone their skills
• Black Opal Books
• He talks about the racial divide in America in the ’60s and ’70s and how the same issues arose in Vietnam, though the dynamics

  

  between races disappeared in “the bush.”

• The irony of Robert’s Americal Award
• Nixon and his promise to bring the troops home
• Stars and Stripes Magazine
• Names in “The Dragon Soldier’s Good Fortune” and characters (like “Chief” based on real people)
• Importance of “setting” in books
• Reading as a writer
• Loneliness and psychological conditions associated with being in

  

  a foreign environment

• Dragon as good luck in Vietnam
• the 195th Infantry Brigade
• Robert reads a passage from his novel
• Humor, even in harshest situations
• Lansky’s (and Robert’s) evolution as a soldier
• The tiger scene and ceremony
• How Robert chose to end the book, and what’s next
• Shout-outs to those who helped him complete this project

• 

  Link to Robert’s Amazon Author Page

• Robert’s email: rgoswitz@me.com

 

 

More Links:

If you enjoy my podcasts, you might enjoy my books!

• Laurel’s Amazon Author page
• https://leadvillelaurel.com/writing-tips/
• https://www.facebook.com/LeadvilleLaurel/
• https://twitter.com/LeadvilleLaurel
• Intro/outro voice by Nick McHargue,
  Podcast music from Jamendo Royalty Free Music

If you enjoyed this episode and others, please subscribe to Alligator Preserves on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts, and tell your friends about it! I’d love it if you “liked” the episodes you listen to, and I’d love it even more if you’d post a quick comment!

Please support Alligator Preserves on Patreon.  You will be rewarded!

Author Kaye Lynne Booth recently asked to interview me for her blog, and then sent a lovely press release to the Chaffee County Times Special Edition Mountain Guide!

I’m honored by the time and care she put into this interview and hope you enjoy it too. Find it here:
Author Hides Away in Leadville! (but most people know where to find me!)

I’m anxiously awaiting the shipment of my books for tomorrow’s book launch party . . . hope they’ll arrive between avalanches!

Thank you, Kaye Lynne! I love how local authors support other authors in this most competitive publishing environment!

 

 

In my 50th episode, I present my Waterwight trilogy–a YA fantasy adventure completed this week and available in full today! I talk about its genesis and narrate the first two chapters of Book I.

Listen Here:

Show Notes:

• I discuss the genesis of my trilogy and how I decided on a title
• Waterwight: Book I
• Waterwight Flux: Book II
• Waterwight Breathe: Book III
• Carol Bellhouse
• Stephanie Spong
• “Miss?” (my first novel)
• Cottonwood Hot Springs
• The Asian Palate restaurant
• I read chapters 1 and 2 of Book I
• Sherry Randall, owner of Cookies with Altitude
• I talk about dreams and the characters that came to me
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• I encourage Language Arts teachers to check out this series!
• My covers were designed by Trif Andrei and Trif Paul, TwinArtDesign. I commissioned them from 99designs.com
• 2019 Denver Pop Culture Con
• Contact me for autographed copies or to find out where I’ll be next!

 

More Links:

If you enjoy my podcasts, you might enjoy my books!

• Laurel’s Amazon Author page
• https://leadvillelaurel.com/writing-tips/
• https://www.facebook.com/LeadvilleLaurel/
• https://twitter.com/LeadvilleLaurel
• Intro/outro voice by Nick McHargue,
  Podcast music from Jamendo Royalty Free Music

If you enjoyed this episode and others, please subscribe to Alligator Preserves on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts, and tell your friends about it! I’d love it if you “liked” the episodes you listen to, and I’d love it even more if you’d post a quick comment!

Please support Alligator Preserves on Patreon.  You will be rewarded!